**live game feed** vs the Bunnies

[avocadoontoast]

Benji was playing for himself and his future prospects trying to showcase that he still has skills !

We didn't need a miracle play. We had them on the ropes, was early in the tackle count and we looked threatening. Unforgivable play from him.

 

[Speed2burn]

After 17 years of first grade I was in shock that he did that. No wonder we can’t make finals when that’s our most experienced players best plan, one of the stupidest plays I’ve ever seen! Playing high risk footy rarely works out just ask roosters or Melbourne, it’s not 2005 anymore you can’t get away with it.

Talking about Benji and his high risk plays, I will never forgive him and/or Robbie for their last tackle play at the end of the semi final against the Warriors in 2011.

We led the Warriors 20 - 18 with 4 minutes to go and our 5th tackle took place on the half way line. The obvious play was to kick it deep into their territory and make them run the ball off their line.

But no, Benji passed to a heavily marked Rowdy and we handed the ball over on the half way. This meant the Warriors were able to put an attacking kick on the end of their set and, the rest is history.

I don't know what Robbie and Benji were thinking. Either of them could have kicked the ball, but they chose not to.

This lack of game awareness has cost us dearly over the years, and Benji has not improved.

I am pretty sure Benji kicked out on the full in the 2010 prelim final aswell, which led to Soward nailing the field goal 13-12 with about 5 mins to go

All on the 3rd tackle. It still gives me nightmares

 

[mike]

Benji was playing for himself and his future prospects trying to showcase that he still has skills !

We didn't need a miracle play. We had them on the ropes, was early in the tackle count and we looked threatening. Unforgivable play from him.

Absolutely had them shot. We just needed a play through the hands, as you say a miracle play was not needed.

 

[Russell]

Doueihi is hard to read. Has the odd "Tigers" moment but generally gets better and better at a very rapid rate before having a stinker or two.

I think it is just experience and a position but I would keep him in the centres as it simplifies his game and reduces the brain farts.

Got to say I would have loved to have Mbye there for the last 10. Who would've thought that!

I know, he could have let Gagai score four tries and we wouldn't have been stressed at all.

 

[hobbo1]

Benji was playing for himself and his future prospects trying to showcase that he still has skills !

Exactly....selfish to the end .
And that’s why he’s not been offered another year with us .

 

[HowDugWT]

Our halves were so predictable. Brooks tried a short ball to Lucy like 5 times and it never worked. That early kick marshall put in has been used and the Bunnies knew it was coming.

 

[old_man_tiger]

Doueihi is hard to read. Has the odd "Tigers" moment but generally gets better and better at a very rapid rate before having a stinker or two.

I think it is just experience and a position but I would keep him in the centres as it simplifies his game and reduces the brain farts.

Got to say I would have loved to have Mbye there for the last 10. Who would've thought that!

I know, he could have let Gagai score four tries and we wouldn't have been stressed at all.

I like him chiming in at fullback as a link man.

 

[Tigerdave]

For all those Benji bashers on this forum, Benji has played over 300 NRL games as well as tests for his country. How many have you guys played? There is a saying made by many greats in sport "If you not prepared to fail you will never achieve".

You're just validating everyone's argument about that last kick, look at the experience of this guy, he should have known better than to play an extremely low percentage kick and on the 2nd tackle no less, we had time and tackles up our sleeve for something a lot better.

 

[Bones]

AJ bingled 2 balls that shuld have been tries and Talau blew another try with hsi 2 on 1 pass where Gagai took the intercept. We had it all over them in that game for the last 60 minutes and should have won it easily. Put that and the Titans game down as our finals chances down the drain

Not watching closely enough - AJ only ruined the Benji pass, he just wasn't experienced enough to be up flatter and completely wasn't expecting it, not an excuse but purely a rookie's mistake.

The other one from AD was ruled a forward pass 🙂

There is always the option for the guy with 17 years experience to look and see where the runner is and pass it to where he is instead of where he wished he was. Again.

Nah , he put it where it needed to be . It’s just another blown set play , if he puts it 1-2 metres behind the advantage line , where AJ was . That we ? AJ fault. That’s fine . He’s 20

Fair enough I can agree that AJ might have been a step behind but to me you either pass it to him or you don’t. **There’s no point passing to where he should have or could have been.** Even if he gets tackled because you had to hold the pass up a touch I would rather that than lose the ball.

Actually, that's exactly what you're meant to do...

So you’re telling me you’re meant to pass it to where a gap is even if there’s no player there to pass to? I’d say your team is going to spend a lot of time defending.

You pass in front of the player so he can run onto it. Passing directly to the player halts momentum...you are taught this as a basic skill from a young age.

AJ was too deep - the pass was fine.

I disagree. There were 2 mistakes made in the play. The first was AJ being a step behind. The second was Benji passing too far out in front of him.

Yes you pass in front of the player so he can run onto it, but not so far in front he can’t reach it. The other basic skill you teach kids from a young age is if the player isn’t there to receive the pass, hold on to the ball.

 

[Spud_Murphy]

Benji was known for that pass
Now he will be known for that kick
As good as the pass was (2005)
The kick takes the cake as after 19 years in the game
He comes up with that
It's something you expect from a rookie half
Not a seasoned campaigner
Benji does some great things I will give him that
But its the brain explosions that kill us
I am sure he would like his time again at that moment
Thanks for the memories Benji
But time to enjoy your retirement

I hear ya CT.... But if the kick was a little softer yada yada.... These great things he does are low % high risk as well... It's just they comeoff....if he don't try he dont do, those "great things"

As others have said all year he's really the only spark, we have

Yes this is true, he and Grant are really the only spark we have in attack and neither of them will be here next year! If it wasn’t for Benji being there last night we wouldn’t have even been in the position to win it in the first place.

That said, his kick on the second at the end there was a real bummer. I could handle it more if it was done on the 4th or 5th tackle, but doing on the 2nd was pretty demoralising. Who knows what could’ve happened with a few more plays on their line.

 

[earl]

Nofo giving it to Twal for his brain fade getting 10 in the bin was a highlight

Twal is looking like he might end up a below average first grad player atm. He needs to get that stuff out of his game.

Besides that he was still terrific. 45 tackles only 1 missed, ran 117 metres as well and most importantly actually was getting post contact metres. If he didn’t go off for 10 his stats would’ve been even better, he’s still a great player.

He also dropped the ball at a key time. He is making some big mistakes especially with his discipline.

 

[Guest]

Homophobic slurs towards players will not be tolerated. Keep it clean please.

 

[Tiger5150]

Nofo giving it to Twal for his brain fade getting 10 in the bin was a highlight

Twal is looking like he might end up a below average first grad player atm. He needs to get that stuff out of his game.

Besides that he was still terrific. 45 tackles only 1 missed, ran 117 metres as well and most importantly actually was getting post contact metres. If he didn’t go off for 10 his stats would’ve been even better, he’s still a great player.

He also dropped the ball at a key time. He is making some big mistakes especially with his discipline.

Speaking of that.....how hard is it to hold onto the damn ball when playing the ball!?!?! I was always taught to hold it to your chest as you get up. Every week we hand the ball over 20m out.

 

[earl]

Our halves were so predictable. Brooks tried a short ball to Lucy like 5 times and it never worked. That early kick marshall put in has been used and the Bunnies knew it was coming.

Geez you are a tough marker. Our halves were really good with the ball. Benji's shocker at the end of the game was really bad but they certainly weren't predictable.

 

[851]

After 17 years of first grade I was in shock that he did that. No wonder we can’t make finals when that’s our most experienced players best plan, one of the stupidest plays I’ve ever seen! Playing high risk footy rarely works out just ask roosters or Melbourne, it’s not 2005 anymore you can’t get away with it.

Talking about Benji and his high risk plays, I will never forgive him and/or Robbie for their last tackle play at the end of the semi final against the Warriors in 2011.

We led the Warriors 20 - 18 with 4 minutes to go and our 5th tackle took place on the half way line. The obvious play was to kick it deep into their territory and make them run the ball off their line.

But no, Benji passed to a heavily marked Rowdy and we handed the ball over on the half way. This meant the Warriors were able to put an attacking kick on the end of their set and, the rest is history.

I don't know what Robbie and Benji were thinking. Either of them could have kicked the ball, but they chose not to.

This lack of game awareness has cost us dearly over the years, and Benji has not improved.

That and Heighno not diving on the ball the year before in a semi does my head in.
Benji at his best still never knew how to play smart and close out a game, that is why he should never be allowed to mentor or coach our halves.
Bottom 8 Benji should be in a PR or ambassador role and nothing else.

 

[JC99]

Benji was playing for himself and his future prospects trying to showcase that he still has skills !

We didn't need a miracle play. We had them on the ropes, was early in the tackle count and we looked threatening. Unforgivable play from him.

Benji ALWAYS goes for the miracle play. He always has he doesn’t know any better. People on here laugh when it’s suggested we need a game manager but that’s why we need one.

 

[JC99]

Nofo giving it to Twal for his brain fade getting 10 in the bin was a highlight

Twal is looking like he might end up a below average first grad player atm. He needs to get that stuff out of his game.

Besides that he was still terrific. 45 tackles only 1 missed, ran 117 metres as well and most importantly actually was getting post contact metres. If he didn’t go off for 10 his stats would’ve been even better, he’s still a great player.

He also dropped the ball at a key time. He is making some big mistakes especially with his discipline.

There were a lot of mistakes all over the park, Twals sin bin was stupid but his dropped ball overall didn’t change the game that much. He definitely made mistakes but to say he’s looking
Like a below average first grader is ludicrous

 

[Russell]

Cannot understand (especially in the first half) where our line speed has gone, it was non existent.

Seemed to be a huge 10 metres as well which made it worse, they then just took one or two steps forward and waited for Souffs to come to them (that guaranteed them 10 metres per PTB without having to do anything).

I think with fast line speed (never being inside the 10 metres, to give away a penalty) to put pressure on the opposition and super quick PTB it would improve the forwards ten fold.

 

[hobbo1]

Nofo giving it to Twal for his brain fade getting 10 in the bin was a highlight

Twal is looking like he might end up a below average first grad player atm. He needs to get that stuff out of his game.

Besides that he was still terrific. 45 tackles only 1 missed, ran 117 metres as well and most importantly actually was getting post contact metres. If he didn’t go off for 10 his stats would’ve been even better, he’s still a great player.

He also dropped the ball at a key time. He is making some big mistakes especially with his discipline.

There were a lot of mistakes all over the park, Twals sin bin was stupid but his dropped ball overall didn’t change the game that much. He definitely made mistakes but to say he’s looking
Like a below average first grader is ludicrous

plodder

 

[Geo]

Alex has the label now I’m afraid...